e-Science 101

Methods of Computational Science and Engineering - Fall'07
1:00-2:30PM Tuesday & Thursday in Powell-Booth 100
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Course Description

This is a new interdisciplinary class, open to students from all options, and indeed anyone in the Caltech/JPL community. The goal of this class is to introduce students to a number of increasingly important tools and concepts in computationally enabled/intensive science and engineering. This includes subjects such as: databases, data mining, advanced visualization, web services, XML and other useful languages, computational semantics, design and implementation of advanced scientific software systems, grid computing, numerical and math libraries, advanced networking, principles and practice of massively parallel computing, etc. (Note: we are not covering traditional CS topics, numerical methods, or programming, as these subjects are already well covered by other classes at Caltech.)

The class is aimed at upper division undergrads and graduate students, who wish to learn the tools and practical skills which are becoming increasingly important in research in all disciplines. The grading will be P/F only. Postdocs are welcome to audit the class if they are interested.

Prerequisites some familiarity with computational science or engineering, programming, and a working knowledge of unix; or a consent of the instructor(s).

The class will be in form of topical lectures (one or more per subject), given by an expert in the field (mainly the staff scientists from CACR). The lecturers include: M. Aivazis, J. Bunn, G. Djorgovski, M. Graham, J. Jewell, S. Lombeyda, A. Mahabal, L. Petzold, M. Stalzer, M. Turmon, E. Upchurch, and R. Williams. The class is coordinated by Prof. G. Djorgovski (Ay), with assistance of Profs. M. Kennedy (Bi) and B. Fultz (APh).